Atelier Canova

Atelier

Atelier means an artist’s workshop.  Historically, an artist would work in his studio with his assistants and apprentices, with all the work being produced there being credited to his name.

Today it is commonplace to use the term “Atelier Method” to describe a type of fine art instruction.  A professional artist works with a small number of students, training, rather than teaching them in (typically) representational art.

Students are given tasks of increasing difficulty as they build their skills. Many courses begin with drawing (often using the Cours De Dessin or copying after the old masters), followed by cast drawing, and grisaille painting (painting in black and white), still life painting (using a limited palette), and finally portraiture and figure painting (using an extended palette). A student will typically have life drawing classes throughout the duration of his studies.

“Sight-Size”

A large part of painting is drawing… especially to a realist painter, and today there are many techniques available to an artist to get the drawing down. Some choose to use comparative measurements, others a grid system (over an original drawing or a photograph), some prefer the ’sight-size’ method, others might even project images and paint from it directly. I feel that all of these methods are perfectly valid, but I prefer to work sight-size. It would be a very dull art world if we all worked in the same way!

The “sight-size” method of working is simply a matter of positioning the easel in a certain way to either obtain a larger or smaller image. The closer the easel is to the subject, the closer the painting or drawing will be to the size of the subject. If they are sitting next to each other the painting will be life size.

Here is an example.

You will note how the size of the model in the portraits are the same size as

the model is in real life

But you do not necessarily have to be so “literal”. Here is an example of a still life where I chose to

some measurements. I loved the long horizontal format of this set-up but I wanted the pot to be

slightly bigger in my painting. So I painted the pot using comparative measurements and

sight-sized everything else.

Conversely, the further the easel is from the subject, the smaller the image will be. We sight-size

our drawings in the figure class and our easels are placed in a semi-circle several feet from the

model stand. The drawings are therefore smaller than life.

Just in case you are wondering, if you’d like a “larger than life” painting, then you place the easel

behind the subject. Here is a painting I did sight-size but the tomato was about 45 cm wide in the

painting. I stood right in front of the tomato – it was almost touching my nose! (I had to get two

tomatoes as the first one began to die).

Limited Palette

By limiting the colours we work with, students are able to develop a greater understanding of
tonality and form, as well as working at a faster pace.  Andrea has developed her own approach
to the limited palette, which all students at the Atelier Canova are taught to work with. You can find out a little more about the limited palette I work with in this American Artist magazine article